We like to think and talk about strange and excluded things: from ghosts and UFOs to forgotten history and strange beliefs. See below for more details.
We're forteans, we're open minded and we welcome everyone online and at our meetings.
Contact us on forteansociety@live.co.uk

Tuesday, 1 March 2016

John Dee’s central lie about his life is still uncritically accepted: that under Queen Mary, like other Protestants, he had been persecuted. This talk will outline the true story, which shows how Dee’s angelic magic affected not only his own life but those of the most prominent Elizabethans who shared much of his ‘occult philosophy’.

Hypnotism has fascinated people since the mid-1800s, when entertainers and medical professionals enthusiastically took up this Far Eastern practice. It inspires many questions, mostly of a personal nature such as: “Can I be hypnotised?” and “Will I lose control?”Christopher Green tackles the (relatively) reputable aspects of the subject - brain imaging, clinical trials and hypnotherapy - alongside the smoke and mirrors of stage hypnosis. He has uncovered intriguing stories about the larger-than-life characters that inhabit the world of hypnosis. From Professors of Mesmerism to Princes of Necromancy, this book explores the different guises of hypnotism as portrayed by pseudo-scientists and showmen alike.Christopher, who is trained in both hypnotherapy and stage hypnosis, examines the connections between stage hypnosis and hypnotherapy or, in other words, the point at which showbiz meets self-help and sleight-of-hand meets scholarly research. His book is a "practical, personal, informative and entertaining, and fully illustrated with colourful source material from the archives of the British Library."7.45pm Thursday 28 April 2016£4 / £2 concessions (Advance tickets)The Bell, 50 Middlesex Street, London E1 7EX.Train and Tube: Liverpool Street. Tube: Aldgate, Aldgate EastFacebook page

Cathy Ross: Designing Utopia: John Hargrave and the Kibbo Kift£5 plus booking fee (Advance tickets)Wednesday 13 April 20167.30pmConway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RLTube: Holborn / Directions. Facebook event pageCathy Ross, Honorary Research Fellow at Museum of London, has collaborated on the first detailed account of the remarkable British writer and artist John Hargrave and his three creations The Kindred of the Kibbo Kift, The Green Shirt Movement for Social Credit and The Social Credit Party of Great Britain.Combining art, politics and design to visually stunning effect, Hargarve and his followers created a maverick but uniquely English form of modernism. Emerging from the turbulence of the twentieth century, this colourful Utopian youth movement has strong resonances with the twenty-first-century world. Cathy Ross will discuss this fascinating organisation with us.£5 plus booking fee (Advance tickets)Wednesday 13 April 20167.30pmConway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RLTube: Holborn / Directions. Facebook event page

Subterranea: Myths, Mysteries and Magic of the Underground World

£8 plus booking fee (Advance tickets)Saturday 9 April 20162.30-5.30pmConway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RLTube: Holborn / Directions. Facebook event pageWe are all lying in the gutter but some of us are gazing at the sewers. Beneath our feet echoes another world of folklore, magic and the dead. Join the London Fortean Society for three talks on terra incognita: the world of tunnels, caves, caverns and underground labyrinths from English folklore to occult secrets to urban legends of the London Underground.

Urban Legends of the London Underground: Scott Wood

Just as fairy tales warn of the dangers of going in to the woods alone London’s urban legends are often horror stories about going alone down in to the London underground. Plague pits seethe beneath your feet in the most unlikely places, corpses ride on the tube and news of enemy bomb attacks are never further than a trip to the shops away. Some of these urban legends are older than they appear; others are new stories posing as history. Scott will tell these contemporary folk-stories, map them across London and then take them pieces of apart to show you what they’re really made of.Scott is the author of London Urban Legends: The Corpse on the Tube, a regular-ish writer for Londonist and co-organiser & host of the London Fortean Society.

Secret Tunnels of England: Folklore and Fact: Antony Clayton

So-called secret tunnels are a subject of perennial interest. Are there really labyrinths of hidden passageways under our ancient buildings, towns and cities, or are these tunnel tales another seam of England’s rich folklore?Antony Clayton will attempt to sort fact from fiction in this illustrated talk. Antony is the author of the highly popular Subterranean City, Beneath the Streets of London, described as ‘a modern history masterpiece’. He has given talks on subterranean subjects at the British Library, the ICA, Bishopsgate Institute and Freemasons Hall.

The Bell, 50 Middlesex Street, London E1 7EX.
Train and Tube: Liverpool Street. Tube: Aldgate, Aldgate EastFacebook pageThis event has sold out. We are very sorry and we hope to re-host it at a later date.